Dead Chaos (A Valkyrie Novel - Book 3) (The Valkyrie Series)

by Ayer, T. G.

  "I have something that belongs to you. I want to trade it for something you have."

  Bal snorted. "That depends on what you have and if I want to trade." He folded his thickly muscled arms and waited, the flames in his eyes dancing ominously.

  I flipped my satchel open, about to reach inside for the ball-and-chain when the wolves began to growl, their heads lowered, lips flaring. Bal stepped forward and the cool tip of a sword touched my neck. I peered up at Bal, counting myself lucky he hadn’t decided to turn the flame on his weapon before sticking it into my neck. "Calm down, big guy. I just want to show you something."

  "As you wish. No sudden moves though. Unless you wish to have your head separated from your body." He spoke so congenially that the words he uttered seemed hardly fitting to his tone.

  I shook my head and withdrew the ball-and-chain as slowly as I could. No sudden moves. I liked my head attached to my shoulders, thank you very much. I held the weapon up by the ball end, allowing the chain to fall over the edge of the bag, gaining momentum and clinking its way onto the ground.

  I glanced up at Bal, eager to gauge his reaction, but his face remained expressionless. His lack of excitement set me off-balance. Surely he should have been thrilled to be reunited with his special weapon. But all he did was give it a cursory glance before meeting my eyes with a question curving one bushy, flaming eyebrow.

  Behind me the team was becoming restless. Joshua moved to my side, hand on the hilt of his sword as if suspecting he'd soon need to defend me.

  "So, what is it you want in return for my weapon?" Bal cleared his throat. "Do you not find it strange that you are bargaining with something that does not belong to you?"

  I shook my head. "It's yours. I'm guessing it’s special. I'm guessing you want it back. And if you do, there's something I want in return." My heart thudded as I reached the crucial moment. "I will return this weapon to you in exchange for Gjallerhorn."

  "What!" Bal's voice ripped through the tunnel, loud and violent and threatening to cave the passage down on us. Then he grunted as if the sound would calm him down. "What makes you think the horn of Heimdall is here in Muspell?"

  "Let's just say I have it on good authority that it is definitely here." I didn't plan on spilling my source no matter what.

  "Well, you are mistaken."

  "I don't think so." My voice hardened. We had to get the horn and there wasn't time to play around with Bal. "Why don't you just give me the horn and you can have your weapon back?" I glanced at the ball and then back at Bal. I swallowed a little. The ball looked puny. Hardly the thing an oversized brute like Bal would care about.

  "What makes you think I want it back at all?" Bal's lip curled in a sneer that chilled my blood.

  So much for a bargaining chip. Now what?

  "Come on, Bal. Don't play games with me. You know you want it back. Just give me Gjallerhorn and we'll be out of your hair." I was out of options. It was looking like the runes had misled us and the ball-and-chain wasn’t as highly prized as we’d thought. I really hoped he wanted it back.

  "I am sorry, Valkyrie, but that is not the way it is going to work." Bal stepped back and placed two fingers in his mouth. He whistled so loudly that my inner ear hurt and all I wanted to do was to cover them. But I didn't move.

  Footsteps thundered up the passage behind Bal and half a dozen heavily armed fire giants paused beside him to take instruction. "Throw them in the dungeons," he snarled. "The wolves too. But be careful with the animals. They belong to Odin and we don’t need to bring the wrath of another god down on us." He’d recognized the wolves. I was suitably impressed.

  The guards grabbed us, pushing and shoving us past a grinning Bal. One giant blew out Aimee's torch and laughed as we were plunged into darkness. I was about to snap at the idiot. How the hell were we expected to go anywhere if we couldn't see an inch in front of us?

  I blinked.

  I thought I'd seen a glow of some kind but I may have been wrong. We were still moving along the pitch-black tunnel, disoriented and disappointed.

  I blinked again.

  No. I had seen something.

  A faint light began to fill the darkness. Light emanating from the giants themselves. From their eyes. As with Bal, these giants had eyes of flames. Little fires that flickered in their eye-sockets, letting off enough light for us all to see by. They also had flaming eyebrows and fiery hair. Pity they looked so brutish.

  We stumbled down endless passages, shoved mercilessly by the giants. They seemed to think it a sport to poke at us from time to time. One moved up to walk beside me, his eyes turning repeatedly to Sigrun’s wings. He frowned and thrust his fingers into the dense feathers at her back, pulling on it until it came away. I knew the sharp prick of the plucked feather wasn't painful at all, but the blood drained from my face and I shuddered. Memories of broken shards of bone, memories of tattered feathers haunted me as I forced one foot in front of the next until my heart stopped racing.

  Up ahead, movement in the shadows near the rock roof reminded me that Hugin was still with us. Good thing he'd been smart enough to hide from the giants.

  At last, after a few left and right turns, enough to make us dizzy, we reached a widening in the tunnel. We'd arrived at the cells. Two large grottos led off on either side of us, closed off by iron bars. One of the giants grabbed at a bunch of keys hanging from his waist. He rifled amongst the keys until he found the right one and opened the first cell.

  Surprisingly, they shoved us all into one cell.

  The lead giant locked up and the group sauntered off, leaving us in utter darkness.

  "I wish we had a way to light this torch," Aimee mumbled.

  "Let me try something," said Joshua. Shuffling sounds. The sounds of metal striking rock filtered to us and light flared, faltered then faded. Joshua’s face lit up in the flares, and he tried again a few more times until weak light flickered between them.

  Light flooded the cell as the flame caught onto Aimee’s torch. The wolves lurked near the bars of the cell and I wondered how long before they went stir crazy.

  Sigrun sat nearest to me, frowning.

  "What's wrong?"

  "They did not take any of our weapons from us." True, they'd thrown us in here fully armed.

  "They're either very stupid or our weapons mean nothing to the fire giants." I didn't like the sound of my words.

  Especially the ring of truth in them.

  ***

  Chapter 31

  "So, now what?" Aimee looked around the cell, lifting the light higher.

  There didn’t seem to be a way out except through the thick steel bars. Geri had his nose poked between the bars as if all he wanted was to get out. Freki, on the other hand, stood beside me as if telling his brother there was no point to sitting and waiting and that we needed a plan.

  "Well, we have to find a way out of here." I grabbed my satchel and dug deep into it. My fingers touched the cloak and I withdrew the voluminous folds of fabric.

  The Tarnkappe.

  "What's that?" Joshua frowned, staring at the dark material.

  "This is the invisibility cloak Thor gave me to enter Swartelfheim and retrieve the goblet from the evil dwarf queen." The memory of that successful mission was well tainted with the memory of Mika's betrayal. And Fen's disappointment in the daughter who betrayed him. I shook my head to concentrate on our current predicament. "I have an idea. When we hear them coming, we'll cover ourselves with the cloak. They will think we’ve escaped. When they open the cell, we can leave."

  The others nodded. All we had was one plan for now. I couldn't think of any other way to open the cell door unless we managed to grab the keys off the main guard. We settled down to wait, Joshua slumping beside me, our bodies lending each other warmth and comfort.

  It seemed like hours had gone by before we heard the thumping of footsteps coming down the tunnel. I motioned for the team to sit beside me and hurriedly threw the cloak over us. We scrunched beneath the dar
k fabric, bent knees and bowed heads, sharing the same air, blind to anything that happened outside the cloak. I desperately wanted to peek, but we'd laid the cloak over us and Joshua and Aimee flanked me with Sigrun on the far end. Any movement could likely bring the cloak falling to the ground and reveal us.

  The guards stopped before the cell, keys jingled for a moment, then nothing. In that silence I imagined the giant looking at the empty cell in shock. The guard growled so loudly that the tunnels shook, sending dust and sand pattering onto the ground and onto the cloak. I hoped the falling dust wouldn’t reveal any odd patterns to the planes and angles of the corner of the cave we huddled in. I crossed my fingers, urging him to open the cells and inspect it, leave the door open and run for help.

  But he didn't do any of that. He yelled at the rest of the guards who'd accompanied him and they set off down the tunnel, obviously in search of their escapees. My heart and hopes sank. He hadn’t opened the cell and we were still pretty much stuck here until someone let us out.

  I let the cloak drop as their footsteps receded to nothing in the distance.

  "Well that didn't go as planned." I stood and stamped my foot in frustration. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

  All three remained silent, and even the wolves stared expectantly at me. I kicked the ground and my foot caught on the chain of Bal’s now-unwanted weapon. My mind whirled with the beginnings of an idea.

  A fluttering of wings and a lone loose feather floating past my face announced the arrival of Hugin.

  "Where have you been, Blackbird?" I raised an eyebrow. "We thought we'd try to escape, only that plan pretty much failed."

  "You will be pleased, Brynhildr. I followed the giant with the keys. The one who is not so bright at all." I stifled a giggle. Hugin was pretty spot on. "He went straight to Bal, who immediately hurried off to check on Gjallerhorn. Naturally, I followed, and now I know exactly where it is."

  "Perfect. Only thing is we have to get the hell out of this cell." I relayed the information to the guys, more sure than ever that I actually had a plan that could work.

  "I do believe you do," came the enigmatic reply. Typical.

  "Thanks for nothing, Blackbird." I turned to face my dejected team. Joshua rubbed stiff fingers through is hair, Sigrun’s wings were fluttering at her back, and Aimee stared wide-eyed at me. "Okay, I have a plan. And it’s better than our first waste-of-time plan."

  "Hey, don't say that." Joshua shook his head. "If we hadn't done that, Hugin wouldn't have found out where they’re hiding Gjallerhorn. Sometimes things happen for a reason, Bryn."

  "I guess you're right." I was reluctant to admit it even though I knew he was right. I just didn't like having my plan fail. I held Bal's ball-and-chain up. "Okay, help me tie the chain around two of the cell bars."

  While Joshua made the thick knot with the metal links, I drew my sword. He stood back and nodded, an approving grin on his face. I slipped my sword between the chains, holding it parallel to the vertical bars, then began to twist it around and around slowly. I had to be careful as each revolution of the sword could slice my hand in half as the point came close to me.

  The chain tightened, the bars groaned, and Aimee gasped. "That's amazing. It's working."

  I grinned and jiggled the bent bars, and almost whooped as they came free from the slots in the ceiling and in the floor. They had bent so far they no longer fitted all the way from ground to roof. "One more time should do it."

  Joshua untied and retied the chain onto the very next two bars and I repeated the process, my heart thudding with excitement and fear. Soon, the next two bars came away and I flung them to the back of the cave.

  We filed out of the cell, making sure we had all our weapons. Even the wolves looked triumphant as we headed down the passage following Hugin as he led the way.

  We hurried, confident that Hugin wouldn't lead us into an ambush. A few minutes later, he fluttered about and circled back to land on my shoulder. "We need to hide. Someone is coming."

  I told the others and we hunkered down, huddled against the tunnel wall, and threw the cloak over us. The boot steps grew closer.

  Too late I realized the wolves weren't hidden. They stood beside us, right in the open, until Hugin landed on Geri's shoulder.

  The first of the giants took the turn into our tunnel just as Geri and Freki shimmered and disappeared into thin air.

  Okay. I’d forgotten about that particular ability. The group passed within inches of us, one guard stamping the edge of my cloak as he passed. They disappeared on their urgent mission and I was more than thankful.

  We all breathed a sigh of relief as we stood and stretched out cramped muscles. The wolves slowly reappeared too with Hugin sitting calmly on Geri's shoulder. He launched into the air and flew off down the tunnel, and we continued our journey, following the bird to Gjallerhorn.

  At last, we reach a fork and Hugin took us right. The new tunnel led us straight to a large, unprotected platform, which looked down into a deep cavern. Below, I made out the hazy shape of lights surrounding a dark table or dais.

  Hugin landed on my shoulder. "They are keeping Gjallerhorn down in the cavern."

  "Is it guarded?"

  "Not by the fire giants."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means that the giants are not guarding the horn. That is all I can tell you."

  Cryptic, but I wouldn’t get any more from the bird. I sighed.

  I turned to the group. "You need to hide. Stay away from the edge. Sigrun has to come with me." Joshua and Aimee frowned and I grinned. "Sigrun is the one with the wings. It'll be easier for her to just fly us down rather than you two walking all the way as well.

  Aimee nodded and scanned the path of rough stairs hewn from the rock walls that lead to the bottom of the cavern. "Imagine trying to run out of there if we got into trouble."

  I handed the cloak to Aimee. "Hold on to that in case you need it." Geri whined and I sent him a stiff look. "You behave and stay with Aimee and Joshua. You can't come with us." He looked at me, liquid eyes seemingly hurt. I ignored him and turned back to Sigrun.

  She followed me to the edge of the precipice and I wrapped my arms around her waist and held on tight. From our vantage point, it looked like a gigantic crack in the rock with the walls running almost parallel to each other in a rectangular shape. Sigrun flexed her wings. She spread them out and flew off the edges. We descended, the torches below casting a light on our progress into the bowels of this cavern. It felt like it took ages to get to the bottom and it probably did.

  I held onto my pack, heart thudding as my feet finally touched the bottom of the cavern. The dais sat in the middle of the rectangle about thirty feet away. A set of nine torches surrounded the dais, throwing Gjallerhorn into stark clarity.

  The horn lay on its side, the flickering light of the torches moving and shifting over it like golden waves. I swallowed hard. It was so large. I shook my head. "I hadn't expected it to be this big. How were we ever going to get it out of here?" I gritted my teeth. I should have thought to ask how large this instrument was. Either way, it really didn't matter. The point was to take it back to Asgard and its size was irrelevant within the context of the mission.

  "Do not fear, Bryn. Despite its size, Gjallerhorn is very light. One of us can carry it with ease. We will just have to hope we do not get caught on our way out."

  Relief flushed through me. Good to know. Still, it was as tall as I was. But now, we had to figure out a way to get the horn out of the cavern without being found.

  "I still can't figure out why this place isn't guarded."

  "I think perhaps they have checked and seen it is here. So now they may be out looking for use. We should hurry in case they return."

  I nodded and Sigrun lifted off. She hovered beside the table then flew toward it as I neared the dais. We’d meant to grab hold of the horn together.

  A flash of light and a pulse of energy sent us flying backward into the rock walls behind
us. My head hit the jagged stone and I felt heat bloom in my scalp.

  Great. All I needed is to crack my skull open while trying to save the horn.

  ***

  Chapter 32

  "So that's why there are no guards. They're using magic." I growled the words out, holding my fingers to the back of my throbbing head. They came away moist and ruby-stained. I wiped the blood off on my pants with a rough, angry swipe. "Now what do we do?"

  Sigrun rose, a bit wobbly on her feet. Her face looked stricken, her feathers shuddering at her back. "I did not see that coming. And I have no idea what to do next."

  I stared at the stone table and chewed my lip. Now that we knew the magical field protected the horn, it was easy to sense it, even see it if we didn't look directly at it. The protection wavered like a bubble of water, shifting and reflecting the light of the torches.

  My head still throbbed, but everything else seemed intact. Light glimmered on gold a few feet from me and I hurried to it. The force of the magical field had thrown Gungnir from my hand. It gave me an idea.

  "Who do you think is responsible for the magic behind this protection spell?" I asked the question more to myself than anything.

  Sigrun answered. "The fire giants have magic but they do not dabble in the kind of strong power needed for this type of protection."

  "So that leaves us with only one culprit." I raised an eyebrow at Sigrun and she nodded. "The god who is the reason Gjallerhorn is here in the first place."

  "Loki." The name left Sigrun's lips one syllable at a time, as if she didn't want to say his name out loud. As if the mere mention of it would conjure him before us.

  "And I'm thinking that Odin is powerful enough to counteract Loki. So maybe a weapon of Odin could counteract the trickster's magic?"

  Sigrun smiled, her head bobbing up and down eager to test my theory. "Yes. It is brilliant."